It Follows

[PDB]

Anyone see this yet?

I just watched it this weekend and loved it. It was very old school with a slow build up of horror. And in keeping with that old school flavor there were no shaky camera, no radical cuts just beautiful well balance shots in 2.39. Kind of like Fury Road, it used classic filming techniques to create a refreshing new film. In that way even though the premise is different, both my brother and I got a Halloween vibe from it.

Also of note the soundtrack was great too. A little over the top but also refreshingly a throw back. Sort of reminded me also of Carpenter and the best Italian composers from the 60s and 70s. You can stream it here:

http://music.disasterpeace.com/album/it-follows

[DoomBot]

Just watched this one last night, creepy movie for sure. It really does give that Halloween vibe. The look of it and camera shots, very well done.

Recommended to any horror fan.

[Image: mVnl1RK.jpg]

[PDB]

Glad you liked it Doombot. I see a cult follow for this movie in the future.

[DoomBot]

A cult Follow indeed.

[PDB]

Well played sir, well played

[mumbles_]

Really, really enjoyed this one. Loved the Carpenter-eque Halloween synth score from Disasterpeace (who also did the score for the game Fez). I don't know if the film would have been quite as good without the soundtrack. There are a few nitpicky things about the film but I would be getting into spoiler territory. All around a cult classic I think... and a refreshingly original horror film in a time when north american horror films seemed to be getting worse.

[jerryshadoe]

So, following the suggestions here I decided to watch this film. It was surprisingly good, even with the couple things that I could get nitpicky about myself. I agree with mumbles_ that this was refreshing to see and gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, north american horror films are not dead just yet

[spoRv]

Going to watch it right now... hope it will be great as you suggested, guys!

Hear you after the end.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

Gonna be honest, guys, I wasn't a fan of this one, even if the score sounded good. The opening was nice, with the clever touch of a car looking rather demonic, but what followed left too much to be desired.

I'm as big a fan as any on these forums of the 70s/80s horror films, which this clearly homages. I was disappointed, though, to find that's all this film did-- homage the films. It Follows was not only rather inferior to the classics (Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.) but also, in my mind, didn't build on what those films of the past were doing. Much has been said about how it subverts the horror genre's expectations: seeing sex as a positive force rather than a negative one. After all, having sex is what will prevent IT from getting you... Yet, in the end, I don't buy into this reading of the film. Conversely, I think it takes the old, run-of-the-mill route of condemning sex since sex is what gets the main characters into their predicament into the first place. The film seems to suggest that starting to have sex is a gateway into horror and debauchery. The biggest "OH MY GOD look at what this character has stooped to" scene is when Jay sees the three guys on the boat and presumably has sex with them to give herself more time.

On a more general note, I had other problems, such as the lack of character development. In Halloween, we got to know not only Laurie but Annie and Linda. Then, in Nightmare on Elm Street, Tina, Glen, Nancy, and Rod all got adequate amount of time to develop. Here, characters are sketched far more sparsely. Why did Greg decide to help Jay out of the blue when there was no previous set-up? Out of the four main friends, Yara, the bespectacled girl, is absolutely useless, save for one clever scare. She literally does nothing throughout the entire movie except read somewhat pretentious quotes off of some clamshell electronic device. Even the male lead, Paul, is completely generic save for the fact that he is sooooooo nice and obviously wants to be with Jay. I don't think he'd pass a reverse Bechdel test... The structure and pacing of the movie seemed a bit off. I don't want to spoil the movie, but I didn't see a logical progression from some scenes to the next.

That all being said, despite my disparaging comments, I do respect the film as a low-budget feature with no star power that made it big. David Robert Mitchell seems like a capable director, and I think I'll buy the French Blu-Ray of this, which also includes his first film The Myth of the American Sleepover, to show support for his talented independent filmmaking. I just don't think this particular film deserves all the praise that it's getting. It's baffling to me that this has a higher Rotten Tomatoes rating than the original Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Mad Max: Fury Road was a 2015 version of the 1980s action picture that was a true renaissance for the genre, showing it had room to expand in this day and age; on the other hand, this is a reverent but ultimately stale homage to the 1980s horror movie.

Anyway, feel free to disagree, but these are just my two cents...

One question, in closing, though: if IT walks to wherever you are, why not take a flight to another continent? That would give you more time than just driving north for a few hours...

[spoRv]

OK, here I am!

Reading previous review, I must admit I agree with The Aluminum Falcon's second and third paragraph; but those, even if are clearly problems, don't take away the fact IT... WAS... SCARY!!!

First shot, I was on Halloween (1999 THX, of course!); after few shots, again, with B&W movies on TV, and after that other horror film's homages and recalls; 8bit music was simple but effective, but let me tell one thing: I HATED every minute of that annoying digital background music... apart that, a nice little film, that *may* risk to be The Ring of this period!

And, again, regarding last paragraph of TAF review; I thought the same about one minute after I discovered how IT "worked"...